Echlander
General Information Echlander (natively ꇠꇮꏂ‹ꅁ ‘Ēckęle /ʔe:tskẽle/) is a language isolate spoken in the remnants of the Ech Empire (‘Ēc) on the planet Patrona (‘Arquǭnę): The Kingdom of Ech, Kalatuun, and the Cōersā canton of the Confederacy of Belsha (Persā). Patrona orbits the star Deru (Cīr) and is inhabited by the alien Patronans (‘Arquǭnęteō). Phonology Consonants * Stops, affricates, and fricatives are voiced intervocallically or after /l/. * m is an allophone of /w/ before a nasal vowel. * ɹ is an allophone /l/ in the syllable coda. Vowels Phonotactics ©V(/s/, /ts/, /l/) Illegal syllables: ne, no, nǫ, ge, go, gue, guo, ko, kǫ, yi, pę, pǫ Orthography Native script The native script of the Echlanders and all of the languages of their previously-conquered territory is a syllabary called ‘Ēckęleposani. The syllabary The syllabary's design is heavily based on the Yi script, though the writing direction and medium cause the Ech syllabary to differ in written appearance. The Ech syllabary has a more italic and fluid design, as it is commonly written with ink and quill, and it is considered improper to write a character with more than three strokes. # This is the length mark. # The inverted breve on these symbols is supposed to be above them like the other glottal stop syllables. # This letter functions ambiguously as either a coda s'' or ''c. It is also commonly written as a barred ꉔ. # Despite yi's pronunciation matching i'', it retains a separate symbol. Writing direction In imitation of Manjingan writing, the Ech syllabary is written in right-to-left horizontal lines starting at the bottom of a page. Collation and character names Dictionaries are ordered starting with the bare vowels in the order from the table above, each immediately followed by their glottalized form. Next are the syllables starting in ''n, followed by the syllables starting in g'', etc. as in the table above. The bare consonants ''s/c, r'', and the length symbol never begin words, but are considered for collation purposes to end the list. Characters are normally named by lengthening the syllable and following it with the word for symbol, ''‘ikas, e.g. ꉔ is ī‘ikas, ꃀ is nā‘ikas, and ꇤ is mǭ‘ikas. The glottal stop syllables are written as their vowel syllables preceded by the word ‘ata, e.g. ꅁ is ‘ataē‘ikas. The bare consonant characters and the length symbol have unique names: ꏂ is cor, ꌦ is laya, and ‹ is hāę. Two characters have irregular names: ꇠ is not *lē‘ikas, it is quicolaya and ꀆ, which is pronounced the same as ꉔ ī‘ikas, is pātaī‘ikas. Romanization Nominals Pronouns Pronouns are never obligatory, as the verb expresses both subject and object. * The inclusive and exclusive 1p pronouns differ in whether or not they include the listener, i.e. ketēle "me and you" vs. gamęr "me and him/her/it/them". Compounding Nominal derivations Verbs Verbs are insanely expressive in the Echlander. Affix ordering Person The personal prefix taking up the first slot is obligatory and may be broken down as a compound prefix into most animate argument and least animate argument. In the table, the more animate arguments are the rows and the less animate arguments are the columns. ex. ilāga "I carry", ǫlāga "he/she/it carries", keolāga "we carry you/him/her/it", tilāga "he/she/it carries him/her/it", nalāga "he/she/it carry them", mǫislātęrqui "it's said he carried you" Voice There are three "voices" in Echlander. A sentence can be direct, inverse, or reflexive. The direct voice is used when the more animate argument is the subject of the sentence. It is marked with a null morpheme in slot 2. ex. Yǫsōrkicqui. "I knocked him out." The inverse voice is used when the less animate argument is the subject of the sentence. It is marked with an infixed ''-is-'' in slot 2, which sometimes affects the personal prefix. ex. Yǫissōrkicqui. "He knocked me out." The inverse morpheme also functions as a reflexive morpheme when applied to the intransitive prefixes (the 0 column in the above table). ex. Ǫissōrkicqui. "He knocked himself out." Personal prefix mutations with the inverse/reflexive morpheme: Slot 4 Slot 4 can contain any of several pieces of information, including an incorporated object, a time of day, a direction, the causative morpheme, or indications of formality. Incorporation When an object is incorporated, the verb becomes intransitive. Some nouns change form when incorporated. * Taimę keotīlios‘ęga. vs. Ketīlios'taimę'‘ęga. "We can steal the gold." * Męlosa kenalęgahōta.' '''vs ''Kelęga'męs'hōta. "I assume we will watch the children." Time of day Example: * Keguǫ'cilǫ'gata. "We will go at dawn." Directions Words indicating the direction that an action is happening in can be incorporated. * Guǫ'kai's. "Let's go down." * Yǫislā'sir'qui. ''"He carried me back." Ability There is an affix meaning "able to do", ''‘ę, which takes up slot 5. ex. Ācor iguǫ‘ęgaga. "I think I can go today." Evidentiality Evidentiality is a marking of the type of evidence the speaker has for what they are saying. The evidence infixes are placed in slot 5. Evidentiality is not marked in the imperative or interrogative moods. The null morpheme describes an event directly witnessed or experienced by the speaker. ex. nitīliostaimęqui "I saw them steal the gold" There are 3 more evidential infixes: reportative ''-tęr-'' (I was told, I hear, It's said), assumptive ''-hō-'' (I can only assume), and deductive ''-ga-'' (I suppose, I guess, I can then infer) Tense and mood * Personal prefixes are dropped in the imperative. ex. Guǫslar! "Don't go!" or "Let's not go!" Particles nominal role particles attitudinal particles conjunctive and disjunctive particles formal particles Vocabulary Anatomy * Body: * Front: * Back: * Tail: * Head: * Eyes: * Nose: * Mouth: * Tongue: * Gnathal plates: * Head ridges: * Ears: * Hair: * Arm: * Hand: * Finger: * Leg: * Foot: * Toe: Calendar Cardinal Directions Colors Patronans can't see blue, so they have no need of words to distinguish it, greatly shrinking their color vocabulary. Differing hues/shades of the basic colors can be made by combining words for things that have the specific color in mind with the word for color (seyǫ), e.g. sītarseyǫ. New color words can also be formed with prefixes meaning light and dark. * Red * Green * White * Gray * Black Numbers Family Onomatopoeia Phrases Category:Alien languages Category:Languages